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The Greatest TV Shows Of The Noughties?

Debate is raging over the best TV from the Noughties -but names like Survivor, Lost, The Wire, The Sopranos and Big Brother keep popping up.

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SurvivorLists, lists and more lists emerging as the year and the decade draw to a close.

There are many opinions about which shows have shaped the last ten years of television.

The Sunday Age on the weekend noted: The Sopranos, The Office, Australian Idol, Big Brother and Lost.

“Big Brother debuted in the Netherlands in 1999. By 2001 we had our own version, and we could not believe our eyes. For the first time we were seeing not just real people on television, but real people like us. Despite furious denial in some quarters, the young folk of the Big Brother house lived in every street in Australia. Traditional audiences – and television executives – liked to pretend they didn’t, but reality television brought the awful, shocking, hilarious, poignant truth home: this is what Australia looked like,” wrote Melinda Houston.

Over in the US, the Dallas-Forth Worth arm of NBC gives its list as:

1. American Idol
2. Survivor
3. The Sopranos
4. Sex and the City
5. Lost
6. Family Guy
7. The Office
8. Grey’s Anatomy
9. Desperate Housewives
10. Two and a Half Men
11. 24
12. Arrested Development
13. Six Feet Under
14. Battlestar Galactica
15. The Daily Show

Variety asked the Television Critics Association to nominate their best. In drama they chose Friday Night Lights, Lost, Mad Men, The Sopranos, The West Wing and The Wire while in Comedy they picked 30 Rock, Arrested Development, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Daily Show, Everybody Loves Raymond and The Office.

Meanwhile the San Francisco Chronicle promises a list on January 1st but notes that some argue the decade doesn’t actually end on Dec. 31, 2009, but on Dec. 31, 2010.

“Ratings were never a factor in deciding on the Best Series of the Decade. Neither was a show’s social impact – it’s ability to influence the zeitgeist. I think that’s why you’ll see the lack of some very big reality/unscripted series. (As an aside, I have an admitted bias toward scripted series. A reality show can be entertaining, but in my mind it can never be brilliant. A concept – or a contest, for that matter – pales in comparison to writing, to the development of a nuanced character.) What I wanted was very simple: greatness. I found that most often in scripted series,” writes Tim Goodman.

In the UK they’ve packaged together an entire TV special on the subject (think 20 to 1?), The Greatest TV Shows Of The Noughties which airs this week. It promises Doctor Who, The Wire, Planet Earth, The Apprentice, Big Brother, Friends amongst its ranks. Top Gear was named Britain’s favourite television programme of the decade.

And as for me? I’ll narrow it down to most influential Reality: Survivor and most influential scripted series: Lost.

And for what it’s worth, the latter was famously inspired by the success of the former.

Source: The Age, NBCDFW, SFGate.com, Variety

44 Responses

  1. aznfratboy, I didn’t say all of them changed the tv landscape – but Sunrise certainly did. Today, for some time was the only breakfast news/chat show on tv, until Sunrise came along and after a while it overtook Today, extending into morning television.

    Big Brother Australia was the probably the largest and most expensive television show which very much changed the television landscape. It was the launch of this format that saw reality become a major part of Australian television, even earning its own category at the Logies.

    Underbelly saw a move back to less than conservative attitudes towards sex and nudity, something not seen since the 70’s.

    Spicks and Specks was the start of an explosion of music/trivia related game shows.

  2. The 00s was certainly the decade of “reality”.

    Saying reality TV has died really depends on your definition. True reality – at least the first time I heard the term used in the UK in the mid-late ’90s – was observational-style documentary serials, like Sylvania Waters (there was a period where Channel 4 seemed to be filming everyone from council workers to bankers). Big Brother is a heightened version of that, and Survivor then mixed reality and game show with challenges, etc (if one considers It’s A Knockout a game show).

    I think it is fair to argue that shows that are closer to talent, game or variety shows are not actually reality shows at all. Or is the news a reality show? I think it is more about exposing people’s real lives or personalities on camera rather than any show that features non-professionals.

    Idol is called reality but is actually a talent show. Is Master Chef reality? It has real people in it, but it’s really a prolonged game show. The Biggest Loser is a bit of a grey area. But I think true reality are shows such as Find My Family, Border Security or Cops and to varying degrees – given the “casts” are often put in staged situations – shows like The Kardashians, The Hills and My Life On The D-List et al.

  5. @ Earthquake none of the shows you have mentioned have changed the television landscape.

    CSI should be up there, single handedly took down NBC’s Must See Thursday at the turn of the millenium, granted NBC was stupid in never picking up a good comedy, CSI not only took down NBC, it spawned crime procedurals every which way across the world.

    Raymond, Frasier and Friends have GOT to be there, they were the last of the quality sitcoms, two and a half men and big bang theory rank nowhere near the quality of the sitcoms of the 90s. How I Met Your Mother imo made their modernised version of Friends and Cheers.

    My top 5 most influencial shows of the noughties:
    The Simpsons – Everybody draws a line from the Simpsons sometime or another

    Sesame Street – Still the most watched kids show today… 40 years on

    CSI – single handedly made crime procedurals the #1 thing to DVR

    Survivor – It gave us reality TV, granted I hate reality TV, it’s still a huge part of primetime TV shows all across the world.

    The Wire – Never watched it, but the reviews I’ve heard is that it’s one of the greatest shows ever. Also, there must be a reason if in some universities in USA you just have to watch all of The Wire and get a diploma…

  6. The Wire was without doubt the best show this decade. Nothing comes close to the writing and the character development. On the comedy front Arrested Development was casted and scripted perfectly.

    On an Australian front nothing really grabbed me like these shows but maybe Underbelly and Rove were two influential and (mostly) impressive programs.

  7. even though i hated bb it did have a huge impact of television, i’m just Glad i can now watch ten without seeing ads trying to get to to care about which housemate goes this week.

  8. That is one sad, sorry list of tv shows!

    Only show I have watched with any semi-regularity in that list is Sex and the City, and I usually watch that so I can make disparaging remarks about Carrie (one of the mose unlikeable female characters I have ever come across).

    And are we talking about the US Office? puh-lease!

  9. It may not be correct technically but in general terms the Noughties were 2000 to 2009, just as the 90s were 1990 to 1999 and the 80s 1980 to 89 etc.

    Question: If the first decade of the 2000s were called the rearley heard “Noughties”, what will the next decade be called?

  10. I thought Big Brother was great viewing and was good while it lasted but it’s something that really belonged to the noughties though I won’t be suprised if ten years later, they are trying to bring it back a la Hey Hey It’s Saturday Facebook campaign.

    But Big Brother and reality TV in general died because it was no longer representative of regular people once the initial seasons finished. You could go to a supermarket and see how average families behave and interact with other people. In the end, after the initial seasons, Big Brother became a lame popularity contest for the untalented and the subsequent fame never lasted i.e Sara Marie and her Bum Dance.

  11. Mine would go some thing like this:

    Buffy, Lost, Survivor, Friends, Sex & The City, Angel, Big Brother, Kath & Kim, Desperate Houswives and the one everyone seems to have forgotten to put on the list ( including tv week )
    CSI !!!!, It was a sleeper hit when it premiered, with a fresh take on the crime solving genre and has spawed countless spin offs and variations on the theme.
    With the programe guide littered with similar shows, I think a lot of people have forgotten how fresh it was when it just started.

  14. I admit, Survivour was the show that really kicked off Reality TV, but it only comes #2 behind Big Brother.

    Big Brother is Australia & the UK’s #1
    Survivour is U.S.A’s #1

  18. Love it or loathe it, it was Big Brother that truly changed the shape of television for the entire decade, and forever more.

    I can’t wait until we get Big Brother-on-steroids in some variation on the movie Series 7 😀

  21. Easily that top 15 becomes a 3 horse race for me.Arrested Development was a rare gem,a show with perfect casting,wonderfully witty scripts & great cameos.Sex & The City was also consistently good,especially Kim Catrall,what a role.The Sopranos again displayed what a great ensemble cast & excellent writing can achieve.Lastly a mention to Six Feet Under…started off great but lost momentum when too many characters were brought in.
    Aussie tv sadly as per usual lost its better programming in lieu of short lived & hyped shows.Always Greener is my pick for number one spot & second place would be Secret Life Of Us which only grabbed my attention in the last 2 seasons.Both shows surely deserved a longer life.

  22. There’s no doubt in my mind. Survivor and Lost are the two most important TV shows of the decade (the SF Croncicle is right, though, the true ‘decade’ started on January 1 2001 and ends on December 31 2010).

    Survivor kick-started the era of reality television, and is still at its forefront.

    Lost was, and to me still is, the best scripted drama on TV.

  23. “not just real people on television, but real people like us”

    Like us? I rather think not.

    It was a freak parade, pure and simple. All ‘reality’ TV is, that’s its sole appeal.
    (to some anyway, the rest of us are still scratching our heads ten years on)

  24. If we’d like most influential Australian shows of the 00’s I would say they would have to be All Saints, Big Brother Australia, Underbelly, The Ronnie Johns Half Hour, Rove [live], Kath and Kim, Summer Heights High, Spicks and Specks, Four Corners and Sunrise.

    All of those have influenced headlines, caused outrage, won awards or changed the tv landscape.

  25. So nothing from the WB/UPN (now THE CW) made the list?

    I’d add Buffy, Angel, Smallville and Gilmore Girls to name just 4! Although Buffy and Angel started before 2000 so would they make the list anyway?

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